In Fall 2027, the UCLA Design Media Arts Department (DMA) will launch three distinct B.A. degree programs: Games, Design, and Computational Art. These three majors bring greater clarity to the curricular areas already central to the department while maintaining DMA’s interdisciplinary spirit and experimental approach to creative practice.

The UCLA Design major offers a distinctive approach to contemporary design by integrating visual communication, interaction design, creative technology, critical thinking, and material practice. Rooted in the fundamentals of design while responding to a rapidly evolving digital landscape, the program bridges graphic design, interface design, motion, creative coding, fabrication, publishing, spatial practice, and contemporary art. Students learn to work fluidly across physical and digital media, understanding design not simply as problem-solving or commercial production, but as a cultural, social, and artistic practice.

What distinguishes UCLA’s Design major is its expansive definition of design. The program emphasizes both conceptual and technical rigor, encouraging students to move between screen-based systems, physical making, networked media, and emerging technologies. Graduates will be prepared to innovate across a broad range of creative industries and experimental contexts.

Design has long been central to the Design Media Arts curriculum, where graphic design, interaction design, digital publishing, creative computation, and experimental media practices have evolved together within an arts-based environment. The Design major formalizes and expands this approach, positioning design as a dynamic field shaped by technological change, artistic experimentation, and critical inquiry.

The Design major for DMA is unique and distinct from existing programs in several ways:

Design from an Expansive Arts Perspective:
This major approaches design as a broad creative and cultural practice that spans graphic design, interface design, motion, publishing, spatial design, and emerging media. Rather than separating commercial, artistic, and technological practices, the program encourages students to experiment across disciplines and media.

Technical, Artistic, and Conceptual Expertise Under One Major:
The Design Media Arts Department at UCLA is uniquely positioned to offer a design major grounded equally in technical innovation, formal experimentation, and critical inquiry. Students develop fluency in design systems, creative software, prototyping, coding, digital fabrication, and visual communication while engaging deeply with the conceptual and cultural dimensions of design practice.

Design Across Physical and Digital Media:
Unlike programs focused primarily on interfaces or branding, UCLA’s Design major emphasizes work across both digital and physical forms. Students explore interaction design alongside print, installation, objects, fabrication, publishing, animation, and spatial practices, understanding how design operates across environments, platforms, and scales.

Interdisciplinary and Technology-Forward Approach:
The program integrates design with creative coding, media art, animation, AI, electronics, digital fabrication, and contemporary art practices. This interdisciplinary framework encourages students to explore how design intersects with emerging technologies and evolving forms of communication and creative production.

Critical and Cultural Engagement:
Beyond technical skills, the program encourages students to critically examine the social, political, and cultural impact of design. Students are challenged to think about how design shapes systems, identities, public experience, and access within contemporary life.

The UCLA Design major offers a distinctive approach by integrating art, technical craft, and critical inquiry while bridging graphic design, interaction design, creative technology, publishing, motion, fabrication, digital media, and contemporary art. This interdisciplinary framework sets UCLA’s Design major apart from conventional programs, preparing graduates to work across rapidly changing creative fields while developing original approaches to design practice in both commercial and experimental contexts.

The Design major begins with a rigorous lower-division course series that establishes technical, conceptual, historical and formal foundations in contemporary design practice. Courses introduce students to graphic design, typography, interaction design, digital image-making, motion, creative coding, media and design history and theory, and material processes for physical and digital production.

From this foundation, students pursue upper-division studio and theory courses focused on advanced design practices across digital and physical media. Electives allow students to deepen their interests in areas such as interface design, branding, motion graphics, publishing, creative technology, fabrication, spatial design, design research, networked media, and experimental art practices. The program culminates in a two-quarter Senior Capstone Project that supports independent research, experimentation, and portfolio development.

Most courses are taught as studios of no more than 20 students, encouraging individual growth, close faculty mentorship, and a strong sense of creative community within the department.

More information regarding the new Fall 2027 application process will be available soon